“I would vote for separation,” says South Sudan President Salva Kiir

James Dak & Uma Julius

October 1, 2010 (JUBA) – The President of the regional Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), Salva Kiir on Friday said that he would vote for separation in the upcoming referendum because unity of Sudan has not been made attractive to him.

Kiir, who is also the First Vice President of Sudan and Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), declared his personal choice in advance while addressing thousands of residents in Juba who gave him a heroic welcome upon his return on Friday from the United States where he took part in the special meeting on Sudan hosted by the United Nations.

“If I were to vote as a person and choose between the two options of unity and separation, I would vote for separation,” he said, noting that the 2005 north-south peace deal gave priority to making unity attractive, but that this has not been the case for the last five years.

The remark by the First Vice President will likely irk his partners, the National Congress Party (NCP) who have already stepped up their rhetoric on the referendum. Officials in the North issued heated statements lately ranging from threatening not to recognize the referendum to ones saying that the Southerners in the North will be immediately stripped from their citizenship rights if the vote results comes in favor of secession.

What initially began as a chilly morning weather eventually subsided as an estimated close to 1,000 people; waving flags, braved the usually hot mid-day sun to have a glimpse of Kiir.

Shops, schools and government departments remained closed for most of the day, while traffic flow was diverted from the main Juba roundabout, as people started lining up along the road as early as 8 am.

Security at the airport remained tight, only with the Very Important Persons (VIP) section only accessed by accredited officials, protocol staffs, local as well as journalists.

Dressed in his trademark hat and black suit with a red neck tie, Kiir was received at the airport by his vice president, Riek Machar, a host of GoSS Ministers, Undersecretaries, Director Generals and Commissioners, among others.

The President’s motorcade later proceeded to Dr. John Garang mausoleum as he waved to the anxiously waiting crowd that was dancing and chanting slogans in support of Kiir.

“South Sudan Muslims strongly support the government of Southern Sudan in the referendum for self-determination. Salva Kiir oyee, South Sudan oyee, SPLM oyee”, one of the banners, held by a group of Muslims at the airport read.

The Southern leader accused the North of “cheating” the South for all these years in the sharing of oil revenues, explaining that it has been giving only 26% of oil revenues and not 50% as provided for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Kiir said the North has also been taking all the oil and non-oil revenues generated in its territory without sharing it with the South, and at the same time taking most of the revenues from the South, including revenues generated from alcohol taxes, which he mockingly said, the North should have rejected as bad money generated from the sale of alcohol which is banned under Islamic Sharia’a law.

DELAY IN REFERENDUM ‘UNACCEPTABLE’

The SPLM chairman stressed that the upcoming referendum must be conducted on January 9th and warned against anybody trying to push it to a later date.

“Anyone who will postpone the conduct of the referendum will be responsible for whatever will happen,” he said.

“There are those who want to postpone the referendum…to teach you what to vote for and they say separation is bad for you. Is it true that separation is bad for you, why did you fight for all these years,” he asked.

He equally said that the referendum for the people of Abyei must also take place concurrently with that of Southern Sudan on 9th January.

The referendum was a key provision of the accord between north and south Sudan that ended a decades-long civil war, during which about two million people were killed.

The referendum process is already behind schedule and the international community fears that the delay would prompt the South to unilaterally declare independence sparking a new conflict. Voter registration has not started and may now not be ready on time for a January 9 vote. The north-south border have yet to be demarcated.

Another referendum will take place simultaneously in the contested oil-rich region of Abyei, where residents will have to decide whether they want to be part of north or south Sudan. The commission to run that vote has not yet been appointed.

Some international diplomats suspect President Omer Hassan al-Bashir has been deliberately dragging his feet over the referendums.

The southern Sudan president warned against those he accused of beating the drums of war, saying the South is not for war but that the semi-autonomous region would exercise its right to self-defense.

But Kiir ruled out the possibility of the South declaring unilateral independence, saying that even if its peace partner, the NCP refused to conduct the referendum, it would still be carried out in the South with the presence of the United Nations and members of the international community.

He said north and south should instead begin to promote good relations as neighbors. Kiir took the opportunity to criticize the remarks made by NCP senior members, who threatened that southerners in the north would automatically lose citizenship, medical care and even lose their property if southerners vote for independence.

“They are saying that nobody will buy the houses of southerners in the north,” he said.

Kiir expressed concern that southern Sudanese in the north need to be protected in the north and repatriated back to Southern Sudan.

Last month, Human Rights Watch said that authorities in the North and South should pledge not to expel minorities if the South votes to become an independent nation.

“Both southerners in the north and northerners living in Southern Sudan told Human Rights Watch that they feared retaliation, even expulsion, if secession were approved,”

“The two parties to the peace agreement — the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the southern ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) — should state publicly that they will not expel each other’s minorities,” it added.

ABYEI

On cross-border movement, Kiir said that Arab nomads who have been crossing into Southern Sudan for grazing lands will continue in the cross-border movement. “Even if they come up to Juba [capital], nobody will stop them,” Kiir assured the crowd.

This week members of the Arab Misseriya tribe staged a march in Abyei region and threatened to block the referendum by force if they are excluded from taking part in it as the SPLM asserts.

Last year the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) redrew the boundaries of Abyei, ceding key oilfields to north Sudan but gave the South most of the land including Abyei town which has huge areas of fertile land and one significant oilfield. The borders have yet to be demarcated to comply with the court’s verdict because of threats levelled by the Misseriya.

The SPLM has interpreted the ruling as meaning that the cattle-herding Misseriya tribe have no right to vote in areas assigned by the PCA to the Dinka Ngok.

The Misseriya fear if the south secedes and the north-south border becomes an international boundary, they will lose grazing rights to the land and their livelihoods. South Sudan president has pledged that the Misseriya will continue to enjoy grazing rights.

The tribe is heavily armed and some tribesmen were recruited by the northern government to fight the south as a proxy militia during the two decades north-south conflict.

Analysts believe unresolved disputes between local communities such as the Misseriya could flare up and drag the north and south back into war.

TRIP TO THE U.S.

The Sudanese First Vice president emphasized that his trip to the US was the last in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) era.

“This has been my last visit to the United States of America before the referendum takes place on January 9th, 2011”, he said, while fully acknowledging the UN Security Council (UNSC) role in what he termed as their timely involvement in Sudan’s final phase of the CPA implementation.

He announced that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members will arrive in Juba on 6th October next week and will meet with the cabinet, parliament, civil society organizations and churches in the region.

A moment of silence was later observed in honor of South Sudanese fallen heroes and heroines, including Dr. John Garang de Mabior, and others who perished in a mysterious plane mishap in 2007.

“Today, we are left with less than 100 days to rich the vital moment in the history of the CPA, the Referendum. This is an extraordinary moment in the history of Africa,” he remarked.

“We must not let the enemies of peace and spoilers to disrupt the forthcoming momentous event. We must be realistic and clear-sighted about what lies ahead of us. The referendum is a golden opportunity when Southern Sudanese and the people of Abyei will make an informed choice of either unity of the Sudan or secession,” Kiir said, amidst chants from the huge crowd.

The GoSS President urged the South Sudan eligible voters to register en masse in order to decide the fate of their in the 2011 referendum.

“At the moment, all signs point to the fact that on January 9th 2011, Southern Sudanese will vote overwhelming for independence. This is what I told the international community in New York and throughout the United States that we must together prepare for this eventuality,” Kiir told a visibly-excited audience.

(ST)